Hercules Wimbledon round-up: Creed leads Surrey to team gold at UK Inter-Counties in Nottingham
Hercules Wimbledon’s next generation look in safe hands thanks to the breakout performances of a number of youngsters in the cross-country, no more so than UK Inter-Counties champion Theo Creed.
U15 Creed started the year finishing as runner-up to Edward Cunniffe in the Surrey County Championships, earning the right to compete in the yellow vest of his county in Nottingham against the best the rest of the UK had to offer.
Against the backdrop of Wollaton Hall, Creed reversed the order, sprinting away from Cunniffe down the final hill to take the Inter-County title and lead Surrey to team gold.
His training partner James Fraser was 24th to help secure the team title.
Just one week later in Pontefract came the English Schools Athletics Association Cross-County Championships, an event where junior athletes qualify through their schools to represent their counties.
Creed, this time competing for London, finished ninth in the junior boys race, first home in a team that would win bronze on the day.
What makes the sequence perhaps all the more startling is sandwiched between came the London School Athletics Association Cross-Country, where Creed was the first year eight boy.
Sam Dyson and Thomas Whorton finished 67th and 87th respectively, both scoring in the Surrey team that finished fifth, in the English Schools junior boys race.
Fraser, this time running for Middlesex, was 144th.
Benjy Street had a similarly productive eight days. At the Inter Counties his 17th place in the U17 race led Surrey to team sixth place, and in Pontefract he was a hugely impressive 24th, again the first for his county – this time Middlesex – but in the youngest of two year groups in the senior boys division.
Such is the strength of Hercules’ junior running, the emergence of Otelia Garcia-Davis has gone somewhat under the radar.
In Wollaton Park, the U15 finished 53rd to close out the Surrey team that took team silver, and at English Schools she was second of the London scorers in 72nd, being supported by Isabella Harrison in 97th.
Harrison, who has spent much of the winter indoors, won U15 silver in the South of England Indoor Championships over 800m in January. Harrison’s brother Max was first of the year sevens at that Tuesday’s London Schools Cross-Country.
Alexandra Bramwell, finished 138th meaning half of the scoring counters for London in the junior girls came from Hercules.
There was strong representation for the senior men at the Inter-Counties, Fred Slemeck led home the Hercules contingent in 51st, representing Hampshire. George Mallett was 91st for Surrey, with Alex Sutton not far behind in 109th for Berkshire.
Other seniors were seen competing this weekend on the roads. Tom Jervis was first home for Hercules at the Friday Night Under the Lights 5k running 15:01 for 19th in the elite race, with Henry Silverstein clocking 15:18 for 39th.
Jonathan Cornish had a busy weekend. The England international was 50th in the elite race at the Podium Festival in Leicester, running 14:49, before barely 14 hours later racing at the Bath Half in Somerset, running 67:02 to finish 11th.
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